‘Godfather of AI’ says billionaires like Elon Musk are right about the future of work—but he predicts mass unemployment is on its way

Geoffrey Hinton, dubbed the "Godfather of AI," warns that billionaire tech leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Gates may be correct in predicting that AI will cause massive unemployment in less than two decades. Hinton, who recently left Google to speak more openly about AI risks, believes that the transition to an AI-driven economy could lead to millions of workers losing their jobs.

He predicts that companies will invest trillions of dollars in AI systems to replace human labor and sell cheaper AI-generated work products. Hinton acknowledges that AI will also create new jobs, but he doubts these new roles will come close to replacing the millions of positions at risk. He cautions that predictions about the future of AI are difficult to make with certainty, likening the task to navigating through a foggy road where visibility is clear only for short distances.

Sanders, Mark Warner, and other critics have warned that this disruption could disproportionately affect young workers and people in sectors like fast food, customer service, and manual labor, potentially driving U.S. unemployment among recent graduates to as high as 25% in the next few years.